The low-temperature magnetostructure and magnetic field response of Pr0.9Ca0.1MnO3: the roles of Pr spins and magnetic phase separation

With the goal of elucidating the background of photoinduced ferromagnetism phenomena observed in the perovskite structured (Pr,Ca) manganites, the low-temperature magnetostructure of the material Pr0.9Ca0.1MnO3 was revised using cold neutron powder diffraction, SQUID magnetometry and ab initio calculations. Particular emphasis was placed on determining the presence of nanoscale magnetic phase separation. Previously published results of a canted A-AFM average ground state were reproduced to a good precision both experimentally and theoretically, and complemented by investigating the effects of an applied magnetic field of 2.7 T on the magnetostructure. Explicit evidence of nanoscale magnetic clusters in the material was obtained based on high-resolution neutron diffractograms. Along with several supporting arguments, we present this finding as a justification for extending the nanoscale magnetic phase separation model of manganites to the material under discussion despite its very low Ca doping level in the context of the model. In the light of the new data, we also conclude that the low temperature magnetic moment of Pr must be ca. 300% larger than previously thought in this material, close to the high spin value of 2μB per formula unit.

Study of electronic and magnetic properties and related x-ray absorption spectroscopy of ultrathin Co films on BaTiO3

We present a first-principles study of electronic and magnetic properties of thin Co films on a BaTiO3(0 0 1) single crystal. The crystalline structure of 1-3 monolayer thick Co films was determined and served as input for calculations of the electronic and magnetic properties of the films. The estimation of exchange constants indicates that the Co films are ferromagnetic with a high critical temperature, which depends on the film thickness and the interface geometry. In addition, we calculated x-ray absorption spectra, related magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD) and linear dichroism (XLD) of the Co L 2, 3 edges as a function of Co film thickness and ferroelectric polarization of BaTiO3. We found characteristic features, which depend strongly on the magnetic properties and the structure of the film. While there is only a weak dependence of XMCD spectra on the ferroelectric polarization, the XLD of the films is much more sensitive to the polarization switching, which could possibly be observed experimentally.

A multiscale wavelet-based test for isotropy of random fields on a regular lattice

A test for isotropy of images modeled as stationary or intrinsically stationary random fields on a lattice is developed. The test is based on the wavelet theory, and can operate on the horizontal and vertical scale of choice, or on any combination of scales. Scale is introduced through the wavelet variances (sometimes called as the wavelet power spectrum), which decompose the variance over different horizontal and vertical spatial scales. The method is more general than existing tests for isotropy, since it handles intrinsically stationary random fields as well as second-order stationary fields. The performance of the method is demonstrated on samples from different random fields, and compared with three existing methods. It is competitive with or outperforms existing methods since it consistently rejects close to the nominal level for isotropic fields while having a rejection rate for anisotropic fields comparable with the existing methods in the stationary case, and superior in the intrinsic case. As practical examples, paper density images of handsheets and mammogram images are analyzed.

Power law approximations of movement network data for modeling infectious disease spread

Globalization and increased mobility of individuals enable person-to-person transmitted infectious diseases to spread faster to distant places around the world, making good models for the spread increasingly important. We study the spatiotemporal pattern of spread in the remotely located and sparsely populated region of North Norway in various models with fixed, seasonal, and random effects. The models are applied to influenza A counts using data from positive microbiology laboratory tests as proxy for the underlying disease incidence. Human travel patterns with local air, road, and sea traffic data are incorporated as well as power law approximations thereof, both with quasi-Poisson regression and based on the adjacency structure of the relevant municipalities. We investigate model extensions using information about the proportion of positive laboratory tests, data on immigration from outside North Norway and by connecting population to the movement network. Furthermore, we perform two separate analyses for nonadults and adults as children are an important driver for influenza A. Comparisons of one-step-ahead predictions generally yield better or comparable results using power law approximations.

Performance of a dermoscopy-based computer vision system for the diagnosis of pigmented skin lesions compared with visual evaluation by experienced dermatologists

BACKGROUND

It is often difficult to differentiate early melanomas from benign melanocytic nevi even by expert dermatologists, and the task is even more challenging for primary care physicians untrained in dermatology and dermoscopy. A computer system can provide an objective and quantitative evaluation of skin lesions, reducing subjectivity in the diagnosis.

OBJECTIVE

Our objective is to make a low-cost computer aided diagnostic tool applicable in primary care based on a consumer grade camera with attached dermatoscope, and compare its performance to that of experienced dermatologists.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

We propose several new image-derived features computed from automatically segmented dermoscopic pictures. These are related to the asymmetry, color, border, geometry, and texture of skin lesions. The diagnostic accuracy of the system is compared with that of three dermatologists.

RESULTS

With a data set of 206 skin lesions, 169 benign and 37 melanomas, the classifier was able to provide competitive sensitivity (86%) and specificity (52%) scores compared with the sensitivity (85%) and specificity (48%) of the most accurate dermatologist using only dermoscopic images.

CONCLUSION

We show that simple statistical classifiers can be trained to provide a recommendation on whether a pigmented skin lesion requires biopsy to exclude skin cancer with a performance that is comparable to and exceeds that of experienced dermatologists.